Pesto sauce

Pesto sauce

Pesto sauce is one of the most famous Italian sauces in the world. It is a cold sauce made ​​from basil leaves, suitable mainly for seasoning pasta, but it is also perfect for seasoning potato dumplings, vegetables or meat. Pesto sauce is easy to find, but we have to be careful at the industrial one made ​​with additives, preservatives and ingredients of poor quality. ‘Pesto alla genovese DOP’ is made instead with controlled ingredients of high quality. But anyway the best pesto is always the one made ​​at home, perhaps with the basil we have in our garden.

Pesto sauce should be done with mortar and pestle, but for convenience and lack of time we can also use a blender, as I did today. To slow down the oxidation of basil leaves, I put the blender jug in the fridge about an hour before and I use the blender at intervals of 2-3 seconds to avoid the overheating of the blades. An important rule either if we use the mortar or whether we use the blender is to be quick in preparing the pesto sauce, because more time it will be in contact with the air and more quickly its color will turn brown due to oxidation.

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

3½ oz Basil

1 tbsp Grated pecorino cheese

1 tbsp Grated parmesan cheese

1 oz Pine nuts

2 Cloves of garlic

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Instructions:

Wash the basil leaves in cold water without crumple and let them dry on a towel. Chop the basil leaves and put them in the blender with a pinch of salt and the shredded garlic. Begin to whisk adding the pine nuts, pecorino, parmesan and finally the extra virgin olive oil. Blend until we will have a smoothy sauce.
Pesto alla genovese is excellent eaten fresh, but can also be stored in the fridge for a few days making sure to cover it with extra virgin olive oil every time we use it. But if we want to keep it for a long time we can store it in the freezer putting it in cups or in forms for ice.